Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Noisy Oyster in Charleston

Hello friends, welcome back to my blog. I have a new restaurant for you, I had an opportunity to visit yesterday while I was in Charleston SC. It is called the Noisy Oyster, and if the rest of their food was as good as I had... their food is wonderful. I visited their restaurant on Market St., one of their 3 locations in Charleston, and luckily I was there early and before anyone else. Everyone was nice and friendly, and I was seated quickly and met my waiter Josh. When I travel I keep myself on a budget, so I looked over the menu to see what was good and within my price range. Everything on the lunch menu was very reasonable, plus I was also in the posession of a $5.00-off Appetizer coupon I had secured from a time share booth down the street.

I decided on the She Crab Soup for my appetizer since that is one of my favorite soups. Any creamy crab-type soup is always my favorite, as some of you know I have a great crab soup recipe on this blog, you have to go back through the archives a little. Josh brought out the soup and I was presented with an empty bowl that had a mound of lump crab meat in the middle. The soup portion was in a small pitcher which he proceeded to pour around the crabmeat. He also had a bottle of sherry vinegar which he started to pour until I stopped him and told him I would do the honors. This soup was incredibly creamy and flavorful. The lump crab meat was sweet and fresh tasting, and when I did add a dash of the sherry vinegar it really complimented the soup. I knew it would, but I like to do stuff like that myself.

For my entrée I decided on one of my other favorites, the Shrimp and Grits. I absolutely love grits, all my life I have enjoyed them. Also you can't beat shrimp, so the two of them together is pure magic. These were creamy cheese grits, with the sauteéd shrimp and slices of andouille sausage, layered over the grits and topped with a savory brown tasso sauce. The portion was huge and the best I have eaten. As some of you know Shrimp and Grits is a Low Country cuisine favorite and recipes vary as much as recipes for gumbo. The key is to season the grits properly, some places put nothing in the grits and I hear people all the time say, "they taste like wallpaper paste". This happens when you don't season them with salt, pepper, and butter. Also don't forget when making them, you can substitute half of the water for cream or milk.

The Shrimp and Grits were served with a huge chunk of their grilled cheddar cornbread. Let me tell you about this cornbread. I normally hate sweet cornbread, I say it's bread, not cake. But brothers and sisters listen to me... this stuff was awesome. A sweet flavor, with bits of cheddar cheese running through it, a nice brown crust on the outside. Moist and flavorful, this was the perfect compliment to the dish. The food was tasty and well prepared. Everyone was friendly, and Josh did a nice job serving me.

I was offered a dessert from the incredible-looking dessert tray, but I had no room for anything. They looked amazing though, a Key Lime Pie, a five decker chocolate cake, 5 different cheesecakes, it was beautiful. I payed my very reasonable bill and told Josh what an awesome meal I'd had. I recommend this restaurant very highly, they have a diverse menu and everything I had was great. I apologize for the blue tint to the pictures, it must be my crappy phone camera. I tried adjusting the color of them in Photoshop, but it made the food look even weirder.

Check out The Noisy Oyster when in Charleston, or you can CLICK HERE and look over their menu online. Tell them RouxBDoo sent you!